Meet the Johammer J1: Is This The Tesla Of Motorcycles?

This is the Johammer J1 , a cruiser like no other. Designed and built in a small Austrian factory near the Czech border, the distinctive shape has been likened to a giant peanut, a prewar Junkers airplane or even a medieval jousting steed.

The outrageous design seems more at home in the living room than the garage.

“This is a natural return to the concept of the horse, before there was noise and pollution from engines,” says Johann Hammerschmid, founder of Johammer e-mobility GmbH for Bloomberg.

While it’s the first electric motorcycle to cover more than 300 kilometers (186 miles) on a single charge, what comes next might make it even more revolutionary. The next generation, now under development, while parked might also double as battery storage behind home solar-power panels. A prototype—think of a Tesla Powerwall on wheels—is already in use in Switzerland.

A crowdfunding campaign has just started to help fund expansion.

“The change of pace will be quicker than we currently imagine,” says Hammerschmid.

Fifty-six-year-old Hammerschmid first thought of an electric vehicle in 2007, and it took shape over the years as essentially a weekend project.

The bike’s top speed is limited to around 75 miles an hour to avoid energy-sapping wind resistance. Acceleration is fun, not fast, but you forgive its limits to sheer performance. It’s like ditching a motorboat for sailboat—both are pleasurable in their own ways.

There’s some clever engineering. The J1 has no dashboard, instead data are displayed on the rear-view mirrors. A reverse twist of the throttle turns the drive motor into a generator that acts as a brake and quickly scrubs speed. It’s so efficient the disk brakes are relegated to helping with slow-speed stopping. And it’s got a reverse gear for parking. Safety-certified items—wheels, tires and brake disks—were sought commercially, and most of the rest was built in house.